DO YOU TRY AND PREDICT THE FUTURE TOO?

As this beautiful family adventure approaches its final stages, I have found myself trying to do the impossible – predict the future.

I do this by asking myself worry filled questions. Questions, that it is impossible to know the answers to.

We are currently in Upstate New York and the countryside is changing by the day as the leaves are turning with the autumn months. The first frost has hit and some mornings are a lively 4 degrees Celsius.

As I was taking my morning walk down the tree-lined dirt road, gazing out across to the distant mountains, the futuristic worried questions entered my mind. 

What will this final month be like?

How will life back in Australia be different?

What will I do for work when I arrive home?

How long until we can do an adventure like this again?

My peaceful walk had been ambushed by my own fears - worries of the future.

I walked with the questions bouncing around my head, not knowing which one to follow. As I concentrated on them harder, they simply amplified in my mind, but the answers were still not there. 

I arrived at the pond at the end of the dirt road, without any recollection of the walk I had just done.

By focusing on the future, something I don’t have any control over, all I was really doing was taking away from the passing resource of the present time.

My future thoughts had deprived me of experiencing the beauty of my present surroundings.

As I turned to walk back to the house, I sat with the questions a little more. I pulled the blinds down on the beautiful landscape and gave the questions my full attention.

To each I answered, “Right now, I do not know.”

The intensity of the questions evaporated. I looked up and I could feel the fresh morning air again, see the rolling mountains, and admire the fire coloured leaves. 

I walked back fully present, feeling each step.

I would be lying if I said the questions disappeared forever. I think our worries of the future will always be there. But the beauty of today is only here for the shortest of moments: Live Immediately.

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PODCAST 010: JULIE PRESTON –ADVENTURES OF TRAVELING AND EDUCATION ON THE ROAD

As many of you know, Inga, Andy and I have been attempting to house and pet sit our way through North America for a year. As much as people we meet say that it is such a wonderful idea and way to travel, we had never met another house sitter before in person. 

That was until we met my guest today, Julie Preston, at a park in Frisco, Colorado, and we formed a friendship immediately.

There were so many similarities with our journeys. We were both traveling with a child, we love the variety and experiences new towns bring, and more importantly, we all adored animals.

But as our friendship grew over the months it became apparent that Julie and her husband Dean were doing this for different reasons to Inga and I.

Julie has been house and pet sitting, on and off, for over a decade, and it was something that she continued to do when she first met Dean. They paused for a few years until Dean was laid off from his work due to the crash in the economy, a week before their daughter Abby was born. 

They started housesitting again, as they needed to reinvent the wheel for their family. Where Inga and I are housesitting so we can afford to travel for a year. Julie and Dean needed to house sit again so they could afford to live.

I admire Julie and Dean on so many levels. They have turned an awful life circumstance into a wonderful blessing, and one that allows them to travel and spend more time with their daughter, Abby.

It is not easy and there are many challenges that they face by choosing this lifestyle, but they understand, that for now, this transit lifestyle, the experiences, the education, outweighs the challenges.

We cover so much in this episode including housesitting due to the economy, life on the road with a seven-year-old daughter, finding stability, the challenges with a non-digital job on the road, finding free activities to do in each community and so much more.

Julie looks for the wonders in life, and she finds most of them in her family, or hiking through the mountains.

I hope you enjoy x

Head over to iTunes to subscribe to the show and play the episode within iTunes

SHOW NOTES

Inkling Design 

House Carers 

Trusted Housesitters 

CONNECT WITH JULIE

Personal Instagram 

Blog 

Photography Instagram 

Website 

Facebook 

Twitter 

SUBSCRIBE

iTunes - Stitcher

THANK YOU

The original Live Immediately theme music is by Timothy Mcphee. You can check out his music at www.firekites.bandcamp.com

If you enjoyed the show, had fun, and maybe even learnt something, then make sure you subscribe via iTunes and while you’re there, why not leave a rating and a review. You know it will make my day.

Thanks for stopping by and giving me some of your time.

Have fun & live immediately.

mike x

PODCAST 009: TOSHA KOWALSKI – SPRINKLING ADVENTURE WITH REALITY

Sometimes we don’t know we’re looking for something until we find it. And even then, we still need to act upon it. 

Tosha Kowalski found a sticker on the ground at the SXSW festival in 2013 that read;

Quit your day job

See the world

Fall in love

Find yourself

Now this sticker was apparently everywhere at the festival and there would have been other people that saw it too - but it somehow resinated with Tosha. And since that day she has been designing her life and acting in a way that aligns with the message of that sticker.

In this episode we discuss taking that leap of faith and how the first step is always the hardest, how Tosha found herself on the Appalachian Trail and how the 3,500km hike changed her, adjusting back to normality after being in the woods for four months, and curating a life where she sprinkles adventure with reality.

Tosha is a strong woman that navigates life via acute corners, wrong turns and dead ends.

I hope you enjoy x

Head over to iTunes to subscribe to the show and play the episode within iTunes

SHOW NOTES

Work Away – the travel website that Tosha used 

Vagabonding by Rolf Pots (book)

Matt and Alana - Being At Peace With Coming Home After Travelling (Live Immediately Podcast episode)

CONNECT

Website / Instagram 

SUBSCRIBE

iTunes - Stitcher

THANK YOU

The original Live Immediately theme music is by Timothy Mcphee. You can check out his music at www.firekites.bandcamp.com

If you enjoyed the show, had fun, and maybe even learnt something, then make sure you subscribe via iTunes and while you’re there, why not leave a rating and a review. You know it will make my day.

Thanks for stopping by and giving me some of your time.

Have fun & live immediately.

mike x